Saturday, January 23, 2010

2 years ago,,, on January 21st is when it occurred. Is it any coincidence that the market is selling off hard again on this day. Is Martin Luther King Jr. week a bad week for stocks? If you screwed up big time this week, fear not, there are plenty of others just like you. Here's a good old parody video of me, losing 30k. I can gladly say there have been no more BIG BLOWUPS like this in the last 2 years. I'm not perfect in my trading and I still make mistakes, but I continue to learn and improve each day and get better.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I had several picture perfect trade setups executed according to plan today. Here's is how it worked.
1.My automated trade system generated a sell signal on the Dow (DIA).
2.I found a trending stock that was trading above average volume and showed a negative divergence against the major market.
3.I confirmed I had a sell signal on the stocks I was monitoring and I went short with a stop and targets to scale out.
4.I exited the trades at the low of the day with a confirmation from my automated trade system giving a buy signal.

ILMN- Break of 1st hour lows and trending down on above average volume with confirmation trade signals.

MED- GAP down and break of 1st hour lows and trending down on above average volume with confirmation trade signals.
These 2 stocks are perfect examples of the IDEAL DUMMY STOCK TRADE SETUP- A gap lower and break of the morning opening lows within the first hour. I had confirmation sell signals until the market reversed at 12:30pm EST.

We opened the day with a Gap Down and selling in Europe and Asia. My Hypothesis for the day was to gauge market internals and look for short setups. With regards to Market Profile, I was looking to short Value Area High with a target set to at least VWAP or VAL depending on volume and TICK readings. I call all my trades live everyday. I reviewed this mornings trading and saw what I did wrong. I exited my trades too soon. I should have scaled out of half and given more patience for the other half of the trade, leaving my original stop in place. Today should have been a big profit day, but instead I ended up with average profits. On the bright side, I learned something and there is always tomorrow for work to be done.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Both of these stocks recently hit 52 week highs within the last 10 trading days. I love finding stocks that show intraday trending patterns like this. You'll notice that both of these stocks sold off right from the open and when compared to there corresponding sectors they showed increased volatility/volume and lead the way.